ImmigrationHouse Dems propose comprehensive immigration bill

Published 8 October 2013

House Democrats last week released a proposed immigration bill aiming to tighten border security and provide a path to citizenship for millions of undocumented immigrants. The House Judiciary Committee has advanced several bills offering narrower changes to the current immigration law. It is not clear whether the rancor characterizing the budget debate would allow for a bipartisan consideration of either side’s immigration legislative preferences.

House Democrats last week released a proposed immigration bill aiming to tighten border security and provide a path to citizenship for millions of undocumented immigrants. Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-California) said the bill combined elements of a Senate bill, passed in June with bipartisan border security provisions.

The Washington Post reports that the bill would require the DHS secretary to develop and implement a plan to secure the border within five years.

Representative Joe Garcia (D-Florida), speaking to reporters at a Capitol Hill news conference, urged Republicans to support the measure. “Republicans like Ronald Reagan and George Bush to John McCain championed immigration reform. There is no reason why our Republican colleagues cannot follow their lead and their footsteps to pass a comprehensive immigration bill.”

Unlike the Senate bill, the House bill does not call for new spending. The White House backed the Senate bill which requested $46 billion in new spending for drones and helicopters, doubling the number of agents patrolling the border with Mexico, miles of new fencing, reforms to the immigration system to allow tens of thousands of both high-skilled and low-skilled workers into the country, and a 13-year path to citizenship for about eleven million undocumented immigrants.

The Post notes that the majority of House Republicans reject a comprehensive immigration bill, and several oppose offering a path to citizenship. The House Judiciary Committee has advanced several bills offering narrower changes to the current immigration law.

Both the Democratic proposal and the Republican-supported bills have taken a back seat to the heated disagreements over the continuing resolution and raising the debt limit. It is not clear whether the rancor characterizing the budget debate would allow for a bipartisan consideration of either side’s immigration legislative preferences.